The ceramics lesson

On the first day of class, the ceramics teacher announced that he would divide the class into two groups. Everyone on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, and everyone on the right solely on its quality. Grading would be a very simple process: at the end of the course he would bring in a bathroom scale and weigh the work of the “quantity” group, fifty pounds of pots for an “A”, forty pounds for a “B”, and so on. Those in the “quality” group, on the other hand, needed to produce only one pot, though it had to be a perfect one, to get an “A”.

Well, grading time came and a curious thing happened: the work of highest quality was produced by the group being graded on quantity. It seemed that while the “quantity” group was busy churning out piles of work, and learning from their mistakes, the “quality” group had sat around theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little to show for their efforts other than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.

This is the lesson: “if you want to be good at something, then stop theorizing and do it! And learn from your mistakes”.

That’s the problem with those who theorize about things instead of gaining experience.

It’s the affliction of academics who stay stuck in the university, or of the committees that debate what ought to be done about innovation and entrepreneurship: at the end of the day all they have to show are beautiful theories, and no results.

(Story taken from this post by Jeff Atwood)